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Syril Levin Kline

Shakespeare's Changeling

Synopsis

Charged in 1616 by the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery to edit a folio of Shakespeare plays, writer Ben Jonson races against time to find the missing manuscripts by seeking out his former nemesis in Stratford. Can William Shaxper's deathbed confession reveal the mysteries of the Shakespeare authorship that could threaten the throne of King James I?

Author Biography

I am an author and educator who believes that writers create within the context of their own experience. By helping students connect the real Shake-speare with his life and works, we enable them to see relationships in their own learning, thinking and writing. Was there more than one Shake-speare, or was he really Lord Oxford, a known writer of his time forced to hide behind his distant kinsman, a grain merchant from Stratford? Not sure? Read my controversial novel and think about it.

Author Insight

Burdened By A Terrible Secret

How can deception lead to an honorable future?
It's easy, if you're Will Shaxper of Stratford and your noble kinsman, Lord Oxford, hires you to pose as the playwright Shake-speare to cover his work as a propagandist.
After all, it wouldn't do for the history plays to be seen as the work of an illustrious literary nobleman.
This is merely one layer of the authorship deception that has lasted for over 400 years.
There are others! Read about them in my award winning historical novel.

Book Excerpt

Shakespeare's Changeling

“It was the talk of the village that he was mightily abused by Lady Margery, Lord John’s widow. She dismissed the players after His Lordship’s death and Pinch was so despondent over her cruelty, he threw himself off the tower. A hay wagon broke his fall, and I stepped in to nurse his wounds. We’d known each other as children, you see, and that sort of love never dies. Pinch would not recommend serving as a player in a noble household to anyone. He would quickly disabuse you of the notion that it’s a marvelous life.”

“I’m not sure even a man of his talents could do that,” Shaxper said. “Ah, but you do seem like a such a level-headed youth,” Meg said, reaching for his hand. “What are you doing?”

“I’m reading your fortune,” she said, studying his palm. “I can see in an instant whether your true heart’s desire lies within your grasp, or whether you’re deceiving yourself . . . you see, the palm is called the table because your destiny has been set and all things rest upon it and – oh, yes. I see. It’s partly what you’ve said, but not exactly what I expected to see.”

“What do you see? Is it my death?”

“Yes,” she smiled, “but not yours alone, for we’ll all die someday, sooner or later. I do see that you have a heroic purpose ahead of you, receiving great fame and fortune for creating illusions. And from the looks of it, you’re not alone in that either.”

“Then the playhouses truly are in my future.”

“Indeed they are, but there’s a darker side – pretense, I’d say. Fame and Fortune are written on your palm, but I also see an old man burdened by a terrible secret.”

“What old man? Is it me?”

“That’s a mystery, too,” she said, as Shaxper gently slid his hand away from hers. “There’s only so much we poor mortals can see, but it would be a shame for you to condemn yourself to a player’s life when there’s no glory in it. That’s what Pinch would say.”

“But by reputation, he was funnier than Will Somers, King Henry VIII’s fool. Pinch must have found some glory in that fame.”